Field of Dreams

Sometimes we need a break from politics, war, and economics. We all agree that the world has gone insane. What do you do to unplug, to escape?

Baseball has long been one of my distractions. We all know MLB is a woke corporation. Their decision to pull the All-Star Game from Atlanta this summer was embarrassing. So is their constant hat tip to wokism in a variety of forms.

But this is par for the course in corporate America. The NFL is worse. So is the NBA. We can’t even get a reprieve from college football.

Every now and then, something happens that makes you love the game again. The “Field of Dreams” game this month was one of those times. They played a major league game in a corn field. It was rural, pure, fun.

It was a time to pause and think. To converse. To remember. To be reminded that the game was the “past time” because it was played in big cities on a “park” carved out of the urban jungle. It was a reprieve from the hustle of urban life. You could smell the grass. It defined green. The game moved at its own pace. No clock. Just outs. And you could sit in the warm sun and feel young, even for a moment.

You don’t play in the rain or snow. It is the ultimate fair weather sport. Glorious. And the Field of Dreams game delivered the nostalgia people wanted. Sports talk show host Damon Amendalora had a great piece on it the other day,

Sure, it had its woke moments. Even the movie was 1980s woke, though you probably couldn’t make the same film today. Every professional and college game does now, but it prompted you to think of “all that was good and can be again” as James Earl Jones said in the movie by the same name. It pulled memories of dad, of family, of collecting baseball cards and playing on the sand lot or local field for fun.

I still watch baseball. I tried to give it up but the game kept me coming back. It has been easier to ignore football, though I still enjoy it, too. I will always call them the Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Indians.

I discuss the Field of Dreams game in Episode 497 of The Brion McClanahan Show.